


Fun and Games

by human_nature (AllyHR)



Series: Genprompt Bingo [8]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: Team Nerd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:00:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22995085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllyHR/pseuds/human_nature
Summary: The Doctor and Nyssa are stuck playing a very dangerous game thanks to a Queen.
Series: Genprompt Bingo [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/918771
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3
Collections: Who Contest Stories and Archive





	Fun and Games

**Author's Note:**

> For the Competition prompt at Who_contest and the Original Character box at Gen Prompt Bingo
> 
> Stockbridge was introduced in the audio Circular Time and appears in several comics and audios
> 
> Enjoy!

A cold blast of Arctic air followed the duo of time travellers as they re-entered the TARDIS. Nyssa of Traken lightly shook the snow from her shoes while the Doctor closed the door.  
“I thought when you said we were going back to Stockbridge, you meant during the cricket season like last time” said Nyssa. She would probably never understand the rules of cricket, but it was rather enjoyable watching the Doctor play,  
“A slight miscalculation” replied the Time Lord, who had already begun pressing a few buttons on the console. “ Just need to recheck the coordinates and we’ll—”  
At that moment, the TARDIS began to jutter and shake. But this wasn’t the normal sensation of materialization. This felt...violent like a great tornado in the winds of time.  
“Nyssa!” cried the Doctor. “Hold onto something! “  
Nyssa reached for a console panel quickly but....

Everything went black. 

Nyssa awoke what felt like hours later. The Doctor was standing over her ; his own eyes fluttering open.  
“Doctor” she started “Where are we, do you think?”  
“I’m not entirely sure,” he answered. . The walls were painted red and black like a checkerboard pattern and while the room was Spartan in terms of furniture; there was a bookshelf in one corner stacked with a handful of boxes (one that was covered in a year’s worth of dust but looked like it was embossed with the letters SN--- LA-D--S ) and scattered pieces of paper across the floor. The Doctor and his companion were lying on the floor next to an abandoned jigsaw puzzle.  
“Judging from the decor and color, “ began the Doctor. “We could be in some sort of play room or perhaps a —”  
“Game room?” came a new voice. Standing in the doorway was a woman. She was plump with salt and pepper hair piled on top of her head in the shape of a cone. Her dress was white with patterns of red and black squares and atop her massive hair stood a tiny white tiara.  
“I see you finally answered my call” began the woman in a voice as sticky and sweet as honey on toast. “Welcome Doctor, to my Play Palace.”  
“Have we met?” asked the Time Lord in confusion. He was suddenly reminded of an encounter he’d had with a certain Toymaker in a previous incarnation.  
“Not so much” she responded “But I know you, I’ve heard countless stories about you on so many worlds. You intrigue me. But let me introduce myself” At this, she extended a hand. “I am Saphira the Queen; The Ultimate Player. And I would like to play a game with you.”  
“What sort of game?” asked Nyssa.  
“Follow me” Saphira answered.  
She led the time travellers down a hallway past rooms upon rooms of arcade machines, a giant chessboard, and even a jungle. Until finally they came to one room. It was like a huge library. The shelves seemed to move of their own volition, books covered the floor, and in the center next to a large red curtain stood a giant hourglass with sugar white sand in it.  
Saphira pulled back the curtain to reveal a giant geodesic dome with electrified edges. The Doctor and Nyssa were dumbstruck as they gazed at its contents : people from various times and places. Nyssa’s heart leapt as she recognized a familiar figure dressed in lavender. Tegan. The Doctor looked in horror at the faces of his friends now frozen inside the dome: Leela, Sarah, Victoria, Vicki, his dear granddaughter, and some he didn’t recognize: a red-haired young man, a blonde teenage girl in a Greenpeace shirt, and what looked like a penguin.  
Saphira let out a cruel laugh. “Every game needs a prize. Now the rules are quite simple: if you two can escape my Library before the hourglass runs out, you save your friends. If you fail, then they are to remain here for the rest of their lives as my new Playthings. And to make things more interesting…” The Queen snapped her fingers as two small figures dressed in red and blue entered the room; their headpieces shaped like pawns. “Have a bit of competition, courtesy of Playthings One and Two. And starting right about” She flipped the massive hourglass. “Now”  
“Doctor, are you quite sure we can do this?” whispered Nyssa.  
“I don’t think we have much choice” replied the Doctor, one hand in his pocket as he scanned the shelves. “Now the question is; where to begin?” 

…  
Nyssa watched as the Doctor began sorting through piles of books scattered on the floor. He was determined to find some sort of clue to get them out.  
“Bunyan, Keats, Milton” he muttered, scanning the spines “Ah! C. S. Lewis. I met him once, a splendid man.”  
“Very nice, Doctor” responded Nyssa, “But we really don’t have a lot of time for reminiscing. Pass me that pile?”  
…  
Nyssa felt the bookshelves moving closer. And closer. To the point where they were dangerously close to squeezing her.  
“Doctor!” she exclaimed “It’s getting hard to move!”  
“Grab my hand!” came a tiny voice.  
Nyssa turned to see Plaything Two leap from the shelf in an attempt to push it closer to the Trakenite.  
Nyssa felt the weight closing in until she saw the hint of a familiar green vegetable sticking out from the other side of the shelf. She reached for his lapel.  
…  
As the last few grains of sand fell from the hourglass, Saphira tsk’d. “Looks like you couldn’t save them, Doctor. Perhaps I could add your Trakenite friend to the rest. “ As she pointed to the dome, something unexpected happened. The electricity on each side crackled and fizzed until it burnt out.  
Saphira sputtered angrily. “How did you manage to short it out?!” she fumed.  
“Actually, it was simple” began Nyssa, emerging from the doorway. “Your Library runs on a probability program connected to the bookshelves. Once it was disabled and the faulty probability sorted out, we were able to escape it.”  
“Might want to have a look at your wiring on that dome,” added the Doctor, who now sported a black mark on his hand. “Now then, Nyssa, after we figure out how to return these friends of mine to their proper place and time, what do you say to another try at Stockbridge? I ‘ll buy you a macaron and tea.”  
“Just perhaps no cricket this time?” Nyssa asked. “I have had enough competition for a while.”


End file.
